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Sunday, April 29, 2012

I Heart Greg Tang...And A Giveaway!

In yesterday's post, I mentioned using GregTangMath.com as one of my short, filmed examples of technology in my classroom.

Today, I wanted to further show you how GREAT this website really is, and how it can be SO beneficial in your classroom, too! (And no, I am in no way affiliated with Greg Tang, I just think he is an amazing man with amazing resources! I promise you'll LOVE this stuff, too!)

As you can see on the home page, there are several different resources on this one site. There are lots of fun games, several online versions of Greg Tang's picture books, and even a place where you can download and print teacher materials and masters!

One of my students' FAVORITE places to visit is Kakooma! (As I'm typing this, I just realized it's very hard to explain how to play without actually showing you...so I'm going to let the website do the hard work and give you a break down!)

My class uses Kakooma both as a whole class fluency activity and as a math center. To play as a whole class, we sit in a "rainbow" around the SmartBoard like this:

Sorry for the poor picture quality...it's hard with the lights half off and the SmartBoard giving off a glare!

The website is pulled up on the board, and we all complete the game together! Students are all participating, either looking at the problem we're on, or looking ahead to be prepared. Here are a few step-by-step screen shots:

If we clicked the correct one, the sum will be displayed largely in the center of that box. Then, the main box will rotate (you can tell by the bolded black outline) to the next one in a clock-wise order. You can see, after we click the correct sum, it will take us to the next box:

And this pattern keeps on:

Now, when you get to the last box, your game is not yet over! Students NOW must figure out the BIG math fact from all the sums from the individual boxes!

Once students click on that one, they've finished the game! The "Scoreboard" screen may or may not come up, depending on their time. (As a side note, I don't let my kiddos normally play easy fours, so that is why I got in the top 10 during this explanation! Haha!)

When we play as a class, we record our "Top 10" with dates, so we can see our progress throughout the year. Sometimes we play boys vs. girls or teams, and we make little notes in our "Top 10" with initials or letters like "B" or "G". Here is an example of one of our class' "Top 10" from hard fives (We don't play this one that often, either! I guess I should have done a screen shot of a more up to date one that we use often! Oops!)

The date when we played as a whole class, and the time we got!

Here are a few final notes I'd like to share about Kakooma.

Another blurry class shot! :)

The way our class plays has evolved throughout this year! It has taken some time to learn to play as a whole class. When students think they know the fact, they raise their hand to be called on to go up. Then student then "announces" the fact to the class as they press it.

There IS a penalty for wrong answers, so students must be careful!

Students can "look ahead" to upcoming squares to be prepared!

If I see a student not participating, I will call on him/her and specifically give him/her a square.

If a student wants to participate but is stumped on the fact, I call on other students to share one of the addends. Then, the original student must come up with the other addend and the sum! This ALWAYS helps, even my low students that are pulled out for math. (Yes, they participate too, and do a GREAT job!)

I really invite you to click on over to the GregTangMath.com website and take a look! There's a FREE version of Kakooma you can play, and you can also explore all the other resources there too! (SO many other great games we play, and printables that I use with my class!)

**So now, are you ready for the GIVEAWAY part of this post?!?!

I will give away one FREE yearlong membership to GregTangMath.com to one follower on Tuesday, May 1 at 6 PM (Central Time!).

There are 2 ways to enter NOW 3 WAYS TO ENTER!!!

1. Leave one comment saying that you follow my blog. (MANDATORY!)
2. Go explore GregTangMath.com. In the "Kakooma" section, try the free game of 6 number addition. Come back here are leave a comment telling me what you thought of it AND your time! (Yes, you MUST try it yourself!) :)

Hello Friends! My name is Jillian, and I have been teaching 2nd grade for 4 years now! I am also a tutor "after hours", so I've come to learn many tricks of the trade with the wide range of kiddos that I work with! I love to "tinker around" alot-- playing on the computer while creating useful resources is kind of my thing! Nothing brings me more joy than to produce something fun and beneficial for the students I work with! So take a seat, read some posts, and stay a while. I'd love for you to even "follow me" to make sure you don't miss any new posts, too! :)